Christmas 2007

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Christmas Eve

Every year we let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve. Today's been a crazy day filled with last minute shopping, coffee drinking, a little cleaning and finally our annual Christmas Eve candlelight service. After the service we headed home for dinner and gifts. The kids all got pajamas. As you can see Bailey is super excited because she got a pair of footed pajamas. I must admit I always loved them when I was little too and even still owned a pair when Jeremy and I met!! Nadirah and Riley love there's too ~ we're all pajama people but Jeremy so he was excited to get and put on his new shoes. I think my gift was definitely the best though. Riley got me Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii. I've wanted it for awhile but everyone just kept making fun of me. Nadirah said she won't play that "old school" game, but I'm about to make her and once she plays I know she'll be hooked. Riley and I played first and I actually won!!! I've never been able to beat him at any other game so this gift just keeps on getting better and better.

Christmas Shopping

Jeremy came up with this idea to go Christmas shopping all together and make a whole day of it. He made us wait until it was cold, which sounds pretty easy in December but not in Texas. One day might be unseasonably warm followed by a freeze ~ our weather is so crazy. It's been in the 70's again this week. Anyway, last Saturday finally met all of Jeremy's criteria so we all loaded up with money and ideas before we set off. Of course we were all buying for each other too so we had to take turns breaking up into smaller groups. We each had our own trashbag in the car to put the gifts we were purchasing in so that no one was able to see what they were getting. And of course no day is complete without Starbuck's so we made a stop there too. We had a lot of fun and we got all of our shopping done in one day!! We had all of the presents wrapped and under the tree by Saturday night. I know that probably sounds crazy too, but that's just the way we are.

Nadirah's Cross Country Meet

Today Nadirah ran in her first KMS cross countrty meet. We were all excited to see her run and Jeremy even took off work early to make it. So I'm driving Riley home from school when I get a call from Nadirah telling me her bus broke down! They had to transfer all the girls onto the boys bus, but they still made it on time. Nadirah did super!! For most of the race she was in first place for KMS...then she fell in the mud and her shoe fell off. The route was pretty bumpy and apparently at some point a girl elbowed her, she fell first and then the other girl fell on top of her. But I was so proud of her because she didn't quit. She finished the race and we'll get her time tomorrow.

Movie Night

On Friday night just the girls headed over to my friend, Becky's, for a girl's night. We watched High School Musical 2 which is totally corny but you love it anyway. Jeremy hates musical's so I'm so glad I have at least one friend to enjoy them with ~ thanks Becky! We also made homemade pizzas and baked holiday treats. I'm not exactly sure how Nadirah ended up with chocolate on her nose but it's a cute picture so I added it anyway.

Dr. McReynold's New Patient

Bailey has known she needed braces for a long time. Her mouth is just too small. Last summer we took her in for her first ortho appointment not really expecting to hear anything other than she would need braces in a few years. Well, they wanted her to start "phase 1" immediately which includes expanders on top and bottom, braces, a lip bumper and possibly headgear. She was so excited and could hardly wait ~ crazy I know. Anyway on Wednesday she got her spacers. Her teeth have been pretty sore so she's only been able to eat super soft food and it still takes forever. Now she wait's until January 3rd for bottom spacers and on the 16th she'll have it all.

Riley's 13th!!!

Riley's now 13! Jeremy took him out to dinner at Texas de Brazil for a special guys night out being a teenager and all. Jeremy also gave him a new pocket knife which he was so excited to actually use. Of course we did the whole cake and present thing too. Riley got new basketball shoes and Reese's peanut butter cups from Bailey and cologne from me. He's growing up so fast and he's completely outgrown me too! I always said he'd catch up to me by age thirteen ~ guess I was right.

Oliver

Your eyes are not deceiving you we have a new dog! Oliver showed up at Colleen and Jesse's with no tags and they were unable to find his owner, so we agreed to take him until hiw owner claimed him. As you can see Bailey has quite a bond with the little puppy, so unless the rightful owner returns...Bailey finally has a dog of her own. I do not think we could have ever found a more perfect dog for us either. You see Jeremy and I are not exactly animal lovers, but this dog is already potty trained, doesn't dig or chew up the furniture and doesn't bark. Seriously the only time I've heard him make a sound is at Riley. For some crazy reason the dog doesn't like guys. Which is actually kind of funny too because when Bailey was little she was terrified of all men except Jeremy, Uncle Jesse and Granpa Mike. I call Oliver "Bailey's prisoner" because you can tell he really likes to run which is probably why his owners never found him. She just rolls her eyes and says "mom" with a long sigh. At night she will very sweetly yet sternly make him go to sleep with her and yes he's allowed on the bed too.

Decorating Our Tree

As many of you know this has been a very difficult week for our family. My older sister, Billie Marnay, passed away on November 19th leaving behind two children. While this time has been extremely challenging for our family we have also seen and felt the Lord's compassion, love and mercy. So even in the midst of this tragedy God provided moments of relief. Amazingly enough the girls decided it was time to decorate the tree! So I wiped away the tears, put on a smile and hung some ornaments.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles" ~ 2 Corinthians 1:3,4

Congratulations to Riley ~ Again

This morning Riley called me to let me know that he made the "A" team for basketball. It's a pretty big deal considering only 10 seventh graders make the team. We're really proud of him and after our disaster of a football season we can't wait for b-ball to start. I decided we'd have a small celebration for him, so we made homemade pizza and cookies. We made Snickerdoodle's (his favorite) for Riley and M&M cookies for Bailey. The kids helped me roll the dough and dip it in the cinammon while Jeremy finished the pizza's. I love that my kids help out in the kitchen. Hopefully before they leave home they'll both know how to cook.

Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with those who rejoice"

Riley's Party

Today we celebrated Riley's birthday. It's a couple of weeks early, but he wanted to play flag football and the past couple of weeks have still been in the 70's so we didn't want to wait and chance playing in the freezing cold weather. He had a lot of fun and got a lot of cash so of course he gad a great day. I can't believe that is less than a month I will be the mother of a teenager! Kinda' crazy but so far I'm really enjoying this age.

Happy Halloween

As you can see Bailey was the American girl doll Molly. Riley on the other hand...a ladybug! As soon as I picked him up from school yesterday he wanted me to take him to meet his friend, Nick, at Walgreens so they could buy costumes. Waiting until Halloween day to find something to wear has sort of become our norm so I was expecting it. Shopping at Walgreens with these two was pretty interesting. These boys were literally in the middle of Walgreens with no shoes on arguing about the best way to put on a dress!! It was hysterical, but I guess I shouldn't complain that my son doesn't know how to correctly put on a princess costume. Ultimately they decided on these two a ladybug and bumblebee costume that by the way are made for toddlers. I can't believe they could actually fit into them. Later we met my friend, Lori, to trick or treat in her neighborhood. We walked around with the little ones and set all the big boys off on their own. It was a lot of fun and of course the kids got way too much candy. When they were little I used to take most of their candy and throw it away!! Luckily they were so small they never noticed. Something tells me I won't be able to pull that off anymore...darn.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we got together with Jesse and Colleen to carve pumpkins. It's always so messy; Bailey's hands were completely orange. Colleen was very secretive with her design and wouldn't let anyone see until she was finished even though Uncle Jesse kept trying to steal a look. While everyone was carving I made homemade chocolate chips cookies. I'm only good for the usual triangle faced pumpkin so I thought it'd be best to let everybody else give it a shot. I think they turned out pretty good. My kids love spending time with family so they were super excited to have them over. Bailey is already trying to convince them to trick or treat with us too.

Bedtime???

I thought this was so funny I just had to share. Bailey usually sleeps with only one or two stuffed animals and she only considers Boo, Cracker, Zoey and Henry worthy of the bed. She's actually always been a little stingy with her space and when she was little like two and three she insisted on her animals being with her, but they were only allowed at the foot of the bed. As usual Jeremy and I tucked her in, turn on her night light and fan, then open the door. So when we went back to turn off her night light and open the door this is the way we found her. You can't tell completely from the pictures but she has almost every stuffed animal she ownded in that bed with her. They're even laying on her and stuffed all around her under the covers.

The Pumpkin Patch

I had this great idea to take the kids to a pumpkin patch. I actually remember going when I was little so I thought they'd really enjoy it. I had envisioned some country farm with a pumpkin patch surrounded by woods. We'd walk around taking our time, go on a hayride, etc... So I do my research and find "The Best" Pumpkin Patch in Tarrant County (I think that's where the problem comes in). As we get closer we can see the huge line of cars waiting to get in ~ still we decide to go for it. We finally get a parking spot, start walking around and realize pretty quickly this pumpkin patch a.k.a. carnival is really geared for toddlers. It was sooo crowded, there were definitely not any woods being that it's located off the side of a highway! After about 15 minutes we left. Oh and by the way without a pumpkin. They were so expensive! I can not believe people will pay $20 for a pumpkin that's going to rot in a week. Now I'm not one to be cheap but that just seemed outrageous to me. Anyway, the kids were really eager to go so we went to our city pumpkin patch (Kroger) and got two pumpkins for under $10. I was actually able to get the one photo without any people in it, which was amazing in and of itself.

4th Grade Scientist

Every nine weeks Bailey will have to be the "scientist of the day" in her class. Last Friday Bailey and her first grade helper got to perform an experiment in front of the first and fourth grade classes. Bailey decided to do a project on air pressure. Riley gave her the idea from swimming at Ryan's. The boys put a bucket over their head and then have a friend stand up on top of it to push them down under the water. Of course the air pressure keeps the water out of the bucket so they can breathe under water. As any good mom would I expressed my concerns of drowning to Riley. His reply "mom you can just swim out from the bottom you're not stuck" ~ can't argue with that. So Bailey demonstrated this with a plastic cup, piece of paper and a bucket of water. Her viewers were impressed.

See You At the Pole

Last Wednesday was SYATP ~ it's a national day of prayer that is student led. The kids meet before school at their flag pole to pray for their faith, friends, school, etc... This year was Riley's first year to participate and his youth pastor asked if I'd stop by the school to take some pictures. Riley told me that it started at 7:30. Well, he was wrong! By 8:00 I'm freaking out wondering where all the kids are and am disappointed that the football coaches didn't let the players go. So I call Jeremy in panic mode, telling him I'm ready to move because I can't believe that there aren't any kids that showed up, etc... I tend to overact a little:) Anyway, come to find out there are two flag poles and I was just at the wrong one.